MONTPELIER — The Vermont Supreme Court has rejected a bid by a former Eden man to use DNA evidence to overturn his conviction in the 1986 murder of a Jericho teenager.

Edwin Towne, now 61, was tried and sentenced in 1989 for the death more than two years earlier of 15-year-old Paulette Crickmore. She was abducted on her way to Mount Mansfield Union High School in September 1986.

Towne wanted to use DNA technology developed since the time of the crime to reanalyze hair evidence from the case.

But the high court ruled Friday that he had not shown a high probability that even if the evidence appeared to be in his favor, it would result in the conviction being overturned. It said there was other strong evidence in the case.